From Oncology to Prevention: What Clutter Is Doing to the Body | Dipa Chauhan | Heather Aardema

What kind of clutter irks you the most?

For me personally, I would say it's physical clutter. Just when there's a lot of things in my environment, if, you know, I haven't cleaned up, it just really irks me and it really inhibits my ability to think clearly and to function clearly. And so for me, the physical clutter is definitely the one that irks me the most.

You can see it, but you can also feel it inside, can't you?

Absolutely. Yep.

I hear you.

I hear you.

I feel it too. All right. Now that we got that question out of the way, thank you.

You're welcome.

Your background is in pharmacy and oncology. And so what I'm curious about is what led you to shift from managing illness, uh, to focusing on prevention and root cause healing?

Yes, so great question. So for me personally, I, you know, went down this very traditional path in terms of, you know, allopathic care. I went into pharmacy because I wanted to be in the medical field, and my mom always told me that, you know, when you have kids later on in life, like, pharmacy is great because it— there's a lot of flexibility with you know, the work environment and you're still able to have a family and have that flexibility. So I thought, you know what, I'll give it a shot. And as I finished up my pharmacy, uh, training and education, I shortly after I started working at St. Michael's Hospital, which is a teaching hospital here in Toronto. And I was working in the oncology department and I saw so many lives touched by cancer and most of the people that were coming into the hospital were coming in due to complications from their cancer and/or from the treatment. And around that time, my husband, who's traditionally trained as a chiropractor, was really getting into this field called functional medicine. And he would share all these things with me, and I'm like, you know, connecting all these dots, like in terms of how when a patient would come into the hospital, they would be fed Ensure, which is just of sugar. And I'm like, these people are on, you know, have end-stage disease. I don't think that Ensure is really fueling their bodies. If anything, it's harming them even more. And so there was just so many questions that were being raised in terms of, you know, the care that they were being given. And so it really piqued my interest, this field of, you know, what we call functional medicine, which is basically root cause medicine. And I didn't really do anything with it for a couple of years. And it wasn't really until the birth of my son. I had a very healthy pregnancy, although I had a very traumatic labor and delivery. And so I really used the tools of functional medicine that my husband had learned to help me recover from basically around— I had 3 surgeries within the, the span of 1 month after my son was born. So You know, those principles of, of root cause medicine, of functional medicine, you know, lifestyle medicine really helped me recover. And within— I was unable to breastfeed my, my son, but within 9 weeks of him being born, I was able to fully transition him to breastfeeding, even though I had been in the hospital for a month. So, you know, I really stand behind it and You know, particularly because it's helped me in my own health journey.

So powerful. What a journey that you've been on. And so I'm wondering, what are some of those tools that really helped you during that time period? So right after your son was born and you had all those surgeries, what were some of the things that you did to help yourself heal?

Yeah, so a few things that I did was, you know, of course when you have a newborn, it is a little more difficult, but really trying to my best to prioritize rest and recovery, really trying trying to pro, you know, prioritize nutrient density, uh, just to help me, you know, get that lactation back up and running. Really focusing on nervous system regulation. So, um, you know, really my body had been in a state of fight or flight after all those surgeries. So really trying to shift my body more into what we call a parasympathetic state. And really for me it was about going back to a lot of the basics when it comes to healthy, a healthy lifestyle. And I think one of the main motivating factors for me as well, it was of course I had this newborn that I had to take care of and that I was so blessed to take care of that I wanted to be back up and running on my feet as, as fast as possible.

Okay, you just mentioned the nervous system, and I am curious What is your favorite way to regulate your nervous system? There are so many different ways we can do it, right?

Absolutely, yeah. So one of the things that, you know, my husband always says is the breath is the steering wheel of the nervous system, right? So we can really consciously shift the way we breathe to shift our nervous system. So when we breathe in a rapid state, when we're breathing shallow, when we're breathing from our mouth, that's gonna shift us into a fight or flight sympathetic dominant state versus when we slow our breathing down, when we breathe from our nose, when we breathe more intentionally. Ideal cadence is about 5 to 6 seconds on the inhale, 5 to 6 seconds on the exhale. We can really shift our physiology more into what we call a parasympathetic state. And the reason why that's important is because any health goal that you're trying to achieve, whether it's better digestion, better sleep, um, you know, bringing down weight, reducing inflammation, whatever it is, it's going to predominantly occur in the parasympathetic state, not in fight or flight.

Can we do that breathing exercise that you just referenced? Anytime somebody mentions the word breathwork or breathing, I immediately take a breath or I slow my breath down. And so you just mentioned that, uh, you just mentioned it. So could we do that together right now?

Yeah, absolutely. So, um, you know, the best thing to do to really get into your breath, to get into your body, is to just first of all try to ground your feet.

I'm going to uncross my legs.

Yep, uncross. I had my legs crossed too, so uncross your legs. Try to get your feet on the ground, and then you can close your eyes if that helps you get more into your body and your breath. And you really just want to relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, relax your eyebrows. These are places where we hold a lot of tension in our body. For women, sometimes they hold a lot of tension in their abdominal muscles. So relax your abdominal muscles, and then just focus on your breath. And it— just focus on your natural breath before you try to change it or shift it in any way. Just notice your inhale, notice your exhale, notice if you're breathing from your mouth Or are you breathing from your nose? Notice the quality of your breath. Are you breathing shallow? Are you breathing slowly? Are you breathing quickly? And now that you're kind of paying attention to your breath, Try to slow it down. So you're going to inhale through your nose, and then you're going to exhale through your nose. And inhale through your nose and exhale through your nose. And for the duration of this podcast, as you're listening, try to just Slow your breath down and focus on that 5 to 6 second inhale and 5 to 6 second exhale.

That felt delicious.

Yeah, you can really notice how your body shifts into that more relaxed state.

I had trouble at first relaxing my eyebrows and my smile. I feel like I spend so much time smiling. It's, it's kind of just who I am. Although once I remember I was walking down the street, this is years ago, and I was going, I was going to work. I was working in the corporate world. I was living in Michigan and I was working in Detroit, downtown Detroit, and And somebody said to me, girl, it can't be that bad. And so I must have— I wasn't smiling, of course. Yep. And I was probably lost in thought. But I feel like there are always these, these messages, societal messages, that we should always smile. And I think I— well, I actually feel better when I smile, but I probably bought into that as well. And so that was the first time I've ever intentionally relaxed my eyebrows. And it was, it was a powerful experience for me noticing how tight they were.

Mm-hmm.

Eyebrows and the smile, but really it was the eyebrows at first that you said, and giving myself that permission. And so I want everybody to give themselves that permission. All of our Listeners and viewers, we don't have to smile all the time, although smiling can be good for us. And right, is that true?

Like, yeah, it's absolutely true. It's just, you know, because sometimes if you're not smiling authentically and if it's more forced, then you're gonna put a lot of tension into your face.

Yeah, yeah, I think I had a lot of tension. Yeah. And so that just dissipated. And, um, and so that was kind of a an additional benefit to the breathwork. So thank you so much for that.

Yeah, you're very welcome. And there's this really cool tool, I just happen to have it sitting on my desk, it's called a Moonbird. And what you do is you put your thumb, uh, just on the sensor here and it literally expands, like, so you can't see it but it expands It's like you're holding a bird, like it's really soft and really gentle and it expands and contracts. And what you can do is you can use it like if you're just, you know, as I'm sitting here doing this podcast, of course when you're talking it's a little bit more difficult, but you can use it to sync your inhale as it expands and your exhale as it contracts. And that way you don't have to like count. Your breath. So yeah, it's a really great tool to help you regulate your nervous system and slow your breathing down.

So I had never heard of that before. I've never seen anything like that before. And so you call it a Moonbird?

It's called a Moonbird, yep.

And where do you find something like this?

Yeah, you can, you can find it online. It's, um, you know, it's a, it's a cool little device. There is an app with it, but you don't need the app to use it. Like, I just I literally had it sitting, I put my thumb on it and it activated it. So now it's like contracting and expanding as we're speaking.

All right, sometimes people think that I'm anti-buying, and I'm not. I'm just, you know, I'm anti-buying on it when you're, when you're on autopilot and you're not, you're not doing it intentionally. I am a fan of buying things that will serve you, that will support your health and well-being. That will add to your life in a really positive, light way. And so thank you for this, because that, that looks like something, uh, something that I would absolutely love to have. Yeah, worthwhile as well. So exactly.

And it's nice because it's not one of those tools that only you can use. Like, we, you know, my whole family shares this, so it's not like it's just mine and we have to buy 3 for each one of us, right? We share it. So because it's not tied to you specifically or You know, it's not tied— it doesn't have to be tied to an app.

Fantastic. What an awesome idea and what an awesome thing to have. So yeah, super. A Moonbird. Okay, I will be looking that up after this interview. All right, I feel more grounded. I feel more centered now that we've done that breathwork. And what I love is I notice anytime I do breathwork, is that it's always a different experience depending on the guide. And there's always, there's always, um, there's always more we can learn, right? We can always go deeper and deeper into breathwork and, um, and get to know ourselves better as well.

Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, it's such a powerful tool, um, and it's something that we carry with us, right, uh, until our last breath. And it can be used just in your, you know, a lot of people think when you say breathwork, it's, it's gotta be some specific technique or experience, but really it's the most important breath is what your day-to-day breathing is in your day-to-day tasks, right? So, you know, one of the, one of the tools that we, we, we use with our clients is called an Oura Ring. And the Oura Ring measures your daytime stress and how often you're in a restored state versus a stress state. One of the best ways to get your body more into a restored state is through your breath, right? And so that daytime stress that it's tracking, like I said, it's not just that like 20 minutes of yoga or 20 minutes of breathwork that you do. It's really tracking what your day-to-day breath is doing in every hour and every moment.

You know, we were so meant to have this conversation today because I have been— I have an Oura Ring and I have been looking at it and it's stress, stress, stress, and I haven't been doing breathwork. And I, uh, I'm just so grateful for this conversation because this is a way we can have agency.

Yes, right?

It's a way we can have agency and we can— it's a way to love on our body and have a really positive return on that investment.

Exactly. Yep, yep. And it doesn't have to be complicated, right?

Love that you just said that. It does not have to be complicated. No. So what are some other ways, you know, some other ways, uncomplicated ways that we can take care of ourselves? So you wrote a book that you're gonna, you're gonna gift to our Living Lighter community, and it's called Healing Habits. And so I would love to learn more about those habits and um, some of your favorites that help increase energy, balance hormones, help with weight loss if people have excess weight that they want to drop? What are, what are some of your favorite healing habits?

Yeah, so really the, the one of the— well, the 3 main pillars that we really focus on. We talked a little bit about the nervous system regulation. The other one is rest and recovery. And I think that really gets overlooked, right? Especially in the world of, you know, getting healthy and weight loss and hormone balancing. You know, we tend to overfocus on food. I'm not saying that food and diet and nutrition isn't important. It is important. But in my experience, the rest and recovery is equally, if not more important. So really trying to focus on optimizing our sleep, right? And once again, it doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be complicated. It's really about getting back to the basics, right? How are we optimizing our environment when it comes to sleep? Are we sleeping in a dark room? Are we sleeping in a cool room? Are we avoiding blue light before bedtime? Are we getting regular sunlight exposure throughout the day? These are all things that are free and can have a huge impact on the quality of your sleep. So the 4 main pillars that I speak about when it comes to sleep is quantity, quality, regularity, and timing. So quality is, um, you know, you might get to bed for 10 and wake up at 7, but you know, within that timeframe, how many hours are you actually asleep? And so I know I mentioned the Oura Ring, but the Oura Ring measures, measures sleep quality through a marker called sleep efficiency, which is, like I said, how many hours you're actually asleep versus the time in bed, right? So you want that sleep efficiency to be over 80%. I would say it should be over 90%. And then quantity, you want to get— you want to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep at a minimum. Some people require a little more than that, and that's okay, but you definitely don't want to get less than 7 hours because once your sleep quantity drops below 7 hours, then that's when it's going to dysregulate a lot of hormones, specifically appetite and hunger hormones. So there's two main hormones that regulate your appetite and hunger. One is called leptin. So when you get less than 7 hours of sleep, leptin is going to decrease, which is going to, you know, decrease satiety. So no matter how much you eat, you're not going to feel satiated. Ghrelin is going to increase, which is going to— which is your hunger hormone. So no matter how much you're— no matter how much you eat, you're still going to feel hungry. And if you get less than 7 hours of sleep, you're going to tend to eat approximately 300 more calories the next day.

Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Oh my goodness.

Just think about the magnitude of that over time.

Exactly. And that's just with one night of sleep deprivation, which is defined as less than 7 hours.

You know, if I get less than 7 hours, and I don't remember the last time that happened because I really like to sleep and I'm a 9-hour person. So, uh, But I, I just remember feeling so sick to my stomach, like even 7 hours of sleep and I, I don't feel well. Um, oh, oh my goodness. And then, okay, and so then there's the whole hormonal and hormonal impact that you just mentioned too. Wow.

Yep, yep, exactly. And then regularity is, um, I like to also call it consistency. So really trying to get to bed at a consistent time and waking up at a consistent time. So if your bedtime is usually around 10, you wanna try to get to bed as close to 10, plus or minus maybe 30 minutes, as often as possible. Same thing with the wake time. If you usually wake up around 6, then you wanna make sure you're consistently waking up around 6:00 AM. And then the last one is timing. So, um, that's basically making sure that you're getting to bed at an appropriate time. So if you go to bed, you know, past midnight, you're missing out on a lot of the healing and recovery time because from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM is when our body does the most healing. So you really want to try to get to bed as close to 10, if not a little bit earlier as possible. So timing is as just as important.

You know, you just said that the body does the most healing in that time frame. What do you mean by that, the most healing?

So that's when your body is really going to shift more into that parasympathetic state. That's when your body is going to repair and regenerate, um, and really go into that deep healing state. If you have an Oura Ring, you'll probably notice that most of your deep sleep is earlier on in the night, and deep sleep is when our body does a lot of that recovery. That's when our brain really recovers. Memory consolidation occurs during that time. So it is really important to get the timing right to maximize the amount of deep sleep you're getting to get that full recovery, right?

And if we don't get that sleep, if we don't get that deep sleep, what happens?

If you don't get that deep sleep, then you're going to feel more tired the next day, no matter if you got your 8 hours of sleep or not, you're going to feel more tired, your memory is going to suffer, um, your overall— like, even once again, your hormones are going to be imbalanced. So deep sleep is really important, is a really important part of our sleep that we need to prioritize. And the best way to do that is to get to bed around that 10 PM mark.

Yeah, yeah. And, and if it— and it's just what a gift to give yourself, you know. I have There are people in my community that really struggle with going to bed earlier, giving themselves permission to go to bed at a decent time. And sometimes it can be, you know, as simple as, you know, I'm taking care of a loved one. Maybe the loved one has health issues or dementia or something like that. And they feel, well, if I stay up late, that's me time. That's the only time I have for myself. And, um, and really though, really, it's not serving you. You're sabotaging your own health and wellness. And, and what if— can't, can't we just take the me time early in the morning instead?

Well, that's, that's exactly what I was gonna say, is like, just get to bed and, and wake up earlier, and then that's a better time to have that me time when it's, you know, those quiet mornings where A lot of people aren't awake, you know, in, in your family perhaps. So I rather you have an earlier morning than a later night.

Yeah, right. Early morning, you wake up refreshed, you're not tempted to, you know, scroll and scroll and scroll like we are late at night, and then there's no blue light.

Exactly.

Yep. And so maybe it's just having an honest, honest conversation with yourself and what you know, what, what your sleep habits look like and how they're impacting you.

Exactly. Yep. Yep. So sleep is, sleep is a super important pillar when it comes to optimizing your health and, and anything that you're struggling with, right? Whether it's digestion, brain fog, inflammation, weight gain, whatever that is. If you're not sleeping well, then it's going to be really hard for you to resolve these health issues.

So good, so good. What else? What, what other healing habits do you have for us?

Yeah, so, uh, another one I kind of touched on it a little bit is, but it's circadian biology. So circadian biology is basically aligning your physiology with the sun. So most of us live an indoor lifestyle, right? We spend probably 90%, if not more, of our time indoors. So really trying to get outside more, and it's more about getting outside at strategic times of the day. So the most important times are going to be within an hour of waking, around noon, And then around sunset.

Hmm.

And it's not like you have to, you know, bake in the sun. It's more so your body doesn't have a, a clock per se, right? Your body doesn't know what time of day it is. It's just because we have a watch that we know what time of day it is. The way our body keeps track of time is the position of the sun. So when you get out within an hour of waking, you know, hopefully if you're following that timing recommendation, so let's say you're getting out from 6 to 7 AM, then you're— it signals to your body that it's morning time, right? Which is going to set off a whole cascade of hormones to, you know, your cortisol is going to rise, which it's normal to do that in the morning. And most of your hormones actually run on a circadian clock, so it signals a lot of your hormones. We talked about leptin earlier. Leptin basically can get very dysregulated, and one of the best ways to regulate leptin levels is through getting sunlight exposure throughout the day. So it's really important because it helps with our hormonal imbalances. It also helps with getting a better sleep as well when we get this regular sunlight exposure throughout the day.

Hmm. I just think how useful this information is for so many, for so many just learning to love, love on your leptin, right? Like loving on that hormone, giving it what it needs so that it can then take care of you.

Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of people think that we need to get out get sunlight exposure just for vitamin D. And yes, that is important. It's important for immune health, our mood, our cardiovascular health. But there's a whole cascade of, I guess, reactions that occur in the body when we get sunlight exposure. And it's activated through an enzyme called POMC. And POMC, when we activate that enzyme, it also helps with optimizing our metabolism. And it helps with optimizing immune health. So it goes beyond just vitamin D. It's, it's a whole other like rabbit hole that you can go down when you learn about the benefits of sunlight exposure.

Wow. Okay. So you're, you're also kind of talking about root cause weight loss.

Yes.

Right. Like, yep.

Yep. So those are kind of the three main pillars that we focus on. Um, in our programs when it comes to helping clients get to the root cause of weight gain. And these are things that are commonly overlooked, right? A lot of the times we just overly focus, like I said, on nutrition and exercise. But if you're not looking at, you know, nervous system regulation, rest and recovery, and circadian biology, then you're missing a huge part of the puzzle when it comes to weight loss.

What is something else that you wish women or, or people knew about their bodies, their metabolism, or their ability to heal?

So another one that we really focus on, uh, once again, I think a lot of the focus sometimes boils down to what we're eating, but equally as important is how we're eating, right? So sometimes there's very simple shifts that we can make with how we eat, never mind focusing on what we're eating, because a lot of people are eating healthy, but they still have issues, right? So when it comes to how we eat, there's 5 main things that we focus on. They're called the 5 C's. They're choose, chew, chill, cherish, and check. So you want to make sure you're choosing the right foods, right? Making sure you're focusing on eating mostly anti-inflammatory whole foods, avoiding the ultra-processed foods.

Avoiding Ensure, possibly.

Exactly.

That's clutter, body clutter. Yep.

You wanna make sure you're chewing your food well, so 20 to 30 times per bite or until it's a baby food type of texture. Choose to chill. So you wanna make sure you're in a relaxed parasympathetic state. So the parasympathetic is also known as rest and digest. So you have to be in that parasympathetic state to digest your food. So one of the best ways to get yourself into a parasympathetic state before you eat is taking 3 conscious breaths to shift your physiology. Cherish, so giving, you know, gratitude for your food. A lot of the times, you know, right now in the summer, many people have gardens and we realize how long it takes to grow that tomato, right? So really giving thanks for your food, where it came from, all the hands that went into not just preparing it, but bringing it to your table. And then lastly is check, right? We want to make sure that the quality of our bowel movements is, is appropriate, right? We want to make sure that we have formed stools, the color is right, there's no undigested food particles or food floating— not food, stool floating on top of the toilet, right? So you want to also check what comes out on the other end the next day.

I'm gonna have my kids and my husband listen to this because they think I am entirely way too interested in what happens in the bathroom. And when they were younger, I'm like, no, I want to come see, I want to come see. And it's so important. Some people are, you know, maybe feel mortified talking about this, but we're all human and, and, and it's, it's something that's so important and it does say a lot about our health, doesn't it?

Exactly. Yeah. I think being in this field, it's like normal for us to have these poop conversations, but it is, it is super important, right? It tells a lot about your health. Like one, one thing that I kind of talk about is how in conventional medicine if you have issues with your digestive health, they make you take a laxative to like eliminate everything and then do a colonoscopy, right? But actual— actually, like, the thing that tells us a lot about your digestive health is your stool, right? So in functional medicine, we look at the stool. There's a lot of different types of stool testing that can be done to, to determine the function of your digestive system and also to see if you have any type of bacterial, parasitic, or fungal overgrowth. So you can see how, how the, the paradigms are so different, right? One has you discard the stool and one has you analyze the stool.

Well, I, I've done stool testing and my, my kids have as well, and it's just been so informative and it has really helped our own personal journeys towards greater health.

Yep, absolutely.

Yeah, I have another question for you.

Okay.

We talk about the lighter path at School of Living Lighter, and of course it gets to be unique to each person and how they want to define it and what they want to make it mean. I do like to say that the lighter path is available to us all. And so for you, Deepa, what does the lighter path look like for you?

For me, I think it's, you know, one of the things that I've learned through my journey as a functional medicine practitioner is when I first started out practicing functional medicine, you know, we did a lot of testing and, and supplements. And it's not that we didn't talk about the, the lifestyle piece of things, but what we realized is that most people aren't doing the basics. So there's no point in like adding all this extra stuff, right, which can really get heavy at times, what I've learned through the years of doing this work is that what really brings lightness to a lot of people is focusing on the things that are free, right? We went to India in 2018, and as we were driving, we saw all these homeless people you know, as we were driving from town to town. And what we noticed is like, these people are doing everything that we're telling our clients to do. They're outside in sunlight, they're in community, you know, they're eating food from the earth. Like, you know, they're probably not eating very much processed foods. They're doing all— they're sleeping in darkness, right? They're aligning themselves with the circadian, uh, rhythm. Um, and so it's really about getting back to the basics because I feel like, you know, for a lot of people, they're always looking for an answer external to them, which in some cases there is, you know, a need for that. But if you're not doing the basics, then it doesn't matter how much stool testing you do or how many supplements you take. Um, it's just not going to work as well if you're not dialing in those foundations first.

I really like where you went. It's all about the basics. It's simple, it's not complicated. And there are so many distractions in life, and those distractions are clutter.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's beautiful. That's so beautiful. Uh, Deepa, you have, you have a Living Light Metabolic Reset program. Tell us about that and tell us about the name.

Yeah, so, um, in Sanskrit, my name means light. So we kind of named the program based off of that. But it's also, you know, we help a lot of midlife women who are in that phase of life where they might be, you know, gaining like that 15 to 20 pounds seemingly overnight and have a really hard time releasing it. And so We named the program Living Light because we help our clients live lighter in all aspects of their life— mentally, physically, emotionally. And so our Living Light program is a 12-week program where we help our clients lose anywhere from 15 to 30 pounds, which is great. They love that. But it goes so much more than that, right? There's so much more depth than that. They sleep better, their digestion's better, relationships are better. You know, overall they feel more calm, more relaxed, more confident, and so it goes way beyond that physical. But yeah, it's a, it's a great program because we really do help you dial in those foundations. It's all done naturally through lifestyle. There's no pills, there's no potions, there's no planks, there's no poking, no injections. It's all naturally done. So yeah, that's So that's a little bit about the program. And we do focus a lot on those 3 pillars that I spoke about.

Okay. Oh, I love the gentle approach and the natural approach. Beautiful. How do we find out more about you and about your programs?

Yeah, so I would always— I always invite people as a first step, they can download my free book. So I know you're going to have the link in the show notes. Um, it's deepassfreebook.com. So that's a great place to start. And then you can find me on Instagram, and if you look up the Living Proof Institute, that's the name of our, our practice, and you can learn more there as well.

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and your experience and your beautiful light with us.

Thank you for having me, Heather. It's been a pleasure.

Pleasure for me as well. Thanks for watching. If this resonated with you, give us a like and share with friends who could use some lightness. Don't forget to follow our page for daily doses of living lighter. And remember, if it feels light, it's right.